Many facilities rely on a trash receptacle called a “dumpster” in which to place the trash generated at the facility. A typical dumpster is a metal or plastic box of multiple cubic yardage in size. The dumpster usually has one or more lids commonly mounted on its top and some units have sliding doors to access the interior of the dumpster at a lower level. This lower level access allows trash to be placed into the dumpster without raising the lid(s). Once a dumpster with sliding doors is filled to a level approximately even with the bottom of the sliding doors, however, the trash then has to be placed into the dumpster by raising the lids first. This basic set up of a dumpster has been in use for many years and works but has always presented the problem of having to raise the lid(s) at some point which is not easy to do.
To minimize the number of times that a dumpster has to be emptied, the dumpsters are designed to be as large as needed to hold the amount of trash regularly placed in them between scheduled pick ups. Standard dumpster size ranges up to twelve cubic yards. To minimize space taken up by these large dumpsters, they are built tall. Dumpster height can go up to eighty inches high from the ground to the lid. Further, lid length varies up to sixty inches. The combination of lid length, size, weight, and height above the ground make it a significant problem in raising one or more lids high enough to place trash in the dumpster.
To make it easier to place trash into the dumpster and to raise the lid(s), some dumpsters are made with sloped tops. This lowers the front height of the lids and allows a person placing trash into the dumpster to possibly lift the lid with one hand and place the trash in with the other hand. If the weight or size of the trash requires both hands, the person placing the trash in the dumpster must first fully open the lids before placing the trash into the dumpster. It is a significant task to raise one or more lids to their fully open position and close them again. That task gets multiplied many times if the lids are filled/covered with water or snow and weigh much more than their normal weight or the wind is blowing and is applying force to the large lid surface area.
The task of raising a lid fully open is currently usually done one of two ways. The first way is by hand or by use of a long pole. The second way is by a person climbing on the side of the dumpster and lifting the lid fully open. The second way is unsafe and dumpster manufacturers install decals warning users not to climb on the dumpster for safety reasons.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an apparatus and method to safely, easily and economically raise a lid, in particular a lid such as is found in trash receptacles called dumpsters. It, therefore, is an object of the invention to provide a lift for use with lids that is robust and reliable enough to operate effectively with rough use, that can be an economical add on to existing dumpsters or installed as original equipment, that is easy and safe for one person to use and which enables a person to use both hands to position the trash into the dumpster. Further, there is a need that when the trash has been placed into the dumpster, the lid(s) can then be easily closed back to their normal position. Thus, this device has multiple requirements. The device must be easy to use. It must be able to lift heavily loaded snow or water covered lids. Importantly, it must not impede dumpster emptying by the waste hauling company.